Apple To Send Team Of Experts To India To Join Hacking Threat Notification Probe: Report

A team of Apple experts is set to investigate the recent incident where some Indian politicians received threat notifications last month, cautioning them about state-sponsored hackers targeting their devices.

A team of Apple experts is set to investigate the recent incident where some Indian politicians received threat notifications last month, cautioning them about state-sponsored hackers targeting their devices. Comprising technical and cybersecurity specialists, the Apple team is scheduled to visit India in the near future, news agency IANS reported on Friday, citing reliable sources.

Notably, an investigation into the threat notifications is currently underway by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). According to IT Secretary S Krishnan, a notice was sent to the company, says a previous report by news agency PTI. He hoped that Apple would cooperate with the investigation by CERT-In.

Apple had earlier mentioned it sent "threat notifications" to individuals whose accounts are in nearly 150 countries. The tech giant had also clarified that "it does not attribute the threat notifications to any specific state-sponsored attacker".

To recall, earlier in October, prominent Indian Parliamentarians including Mahua Moitra, Shashi Tharoor, Priyanka Chaturvedi, and Asaduddin Owaisi tweeted regarding official notifications they received on their iPhone devices. These notifications indicated the possibility of "state-sponsored attackers" potentially targeting their mobile handsets.

According to the iPhone maker, certain individuals are identified as targets due to their unique identities or professional roles. The Cupertino company further clarified that unlike typical cyberattacks, "state-sponsored attackers" allocate significant resources to focus on a specific, limited group of targets and their associated devices. This high level of precision makes these attacks significantly more challenging to detect and thwart.

However, Apple also clarified that in some instances, these notifications may turn out to be "false alarms." The company points out that the detection of such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals, which can be imperfect and incomplete. It is possible that certain Apple threat notifications may not accurately reflect a genuine threat, or that some attacks go undetected.